Book 5
20
A solecism, which by Sinnius Capito and other lien of his time was called in Latin inparilitas, or inequality, the earlier Latin writers termed stribiligo, This word, which seems to occur only here and in Arnobius i. 36, apparently means twisted, awry. evidently meaning the improper use of an inverted form of expression, a sort of twist as it were. This kind of fault is thus defined by Sinnius Capito, in a letter which lie wrote to Clodius Tuscus: A solecism, he says, Fr. 2, Huschke. is an irregular and incongruous joining together of the parts of speech.
20
Since soloecismus is a Greek word, the question is often asked, whether it was used by the men of Attica who spoke most elegantly. But I have as yet found neither soloecismus nor barbarismus These words were applied to any impropriety in the use of language. in good Greek writers; for just as they used ba/rbaros, so they used so/loikos. Both words have the general meaning of foreign ; according to some, so/loikos was derived from Soloi, a town of Cilicia, whose inhabitants spoke a perverted Attic dialect. This derivation seems to be accepted to-day. Barbarus is regarded as an onomatopoeic word, representing stammering; cf. balbus. So too our earlier writers used soloecus regularly, soloecismus never, I think. But if that be so, soloecismus is proper usage neither in Greek nor in Latin.
21
One who says pluria, compluria and compluriens speaks good Latin, and not incorrectly.
